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Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 9:43 pm
by vw59beetle
So Butzi and I made the Sunday Times yesterday. What excites me most is not the fact that I'm in the newspaper, but rather the fact that my name appears on the same page as the 3 people I look up to most; my Dad, Werner Alker and Al Gibson.

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I was interviewed about the Porsche 550 Spyder we had in South Africa. I really liked that they mentioned my love affair with classic VW's and not only Porsche.

Wernher

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 1:52 pm
by flatfourfan
that's pretty awesome man..........kudos to you.

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:33 pm
by Tony Z
other than being famous ;-) thats actually a pretty cool picture

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:46 pm
by vw59beetle
Tony. Not so sure about famous, but I did like the fact that Butzi is in it. I had no idea they were going to take pictures. I was just suppose to help with info on the 550.

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 3:03 pm
by vw59beetle
Not sure if you guys will be able to read it, but here is what they had to say.

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Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 3:17 pm
by flatfourfan
Nice article and the fact that it's by Falkiner makes it so much better.....nice guy, knows his shit.

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 5:23 pm
by Tony Z
thats actually a very nice article!

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 5:31 pm
by Tony Z
Way back when, near the beginnings of this forum, I posted a link to an incomplete 550 selling for 1 million euro
I decided to try find something similar...
http://jalopnik.com/5892124/1955-porsch ... 5-million/
"1955 Porsche 550 Spyder Sells For Record $3.685 million"
O yea, October 2012...

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:06 pm
by vw59beetle
Yes Tony. The price shot up in 2012 and I know of 3 sold since then, all for similar prices . The last one sold for $ 4 Million after auction fees.
It's still my dream to own one, but won't be easy. I have heard that Johan Rupert bought one this year, but that it is still in England. Whether this is true only time would tell.

Wernher

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:42 pm
by riaanj
Brilliant article.. :hangloose:

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:31 am
by Barry
Nice one Wernher!

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 6:31 am
by vw59beetle
Thanks guys. Barry I did try and squeeze a few words in on your sheet metal course :) But unfortunately I did not write the article. I must say Thomas did do a good job though.

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 8:40 am
by eahmod
Good article, the passion of cars and racing heritage shine through. :hangloose:

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:22 am
by JB Racing
Fantastic article really great story

I am sure there are some really rare Porsche's out there in SA that no one knows about, just lost in time somewhere.

I came across my 944 Turbo Cup one of only 19 imported into SA for the race series in the late 80's in the Junk mail of all places and off course bought it immediately, previous owner knew what he had but was happy to let it go.

We also had a great article on our Porsche forum of a very rare 911 RSR that lives in SA currently anyone who wants to read the article here is the link http://www.porscheplanet.co.za/content. ... uth-Africa

Re: Story of SA 550 Spyder

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:00 pm
by vw59beetle
Johnny. Like you said, we had many great cars in SA and there are still some to be found. Can you please post the RSR story here on the forum for us to read? Your website won't allow me in. Was that the car Leon did the research on?

Cheers

Wernher